ETSU theater majors Ben Patterson and Gabe Felty were among 40 acting pairs from colleges across the southern U.S. to advance to the semifinals of the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival Irene Ryan Acting Scholarship Auditions on Feb. 4-8 at the University of South Carolina Upstate in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
Irene Ryan Scholarship nominee Patterson and his acting partner Felty attended the KCACTF regional festival for Region four, which included theater students from colleges in Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and southern Virginia.
160 pairs competed in the first round, 40 pairs advanced to the semi-final round and only 16 pairs made it to the final round. Patterson and Felty made it to semi-finals, but they did not advance to the final round.
The KCACTF is a national theater program in partnership with the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., that involves colleges from eight geographical regions in the U.S. to promote the work of theater students.
The Irene Ryan Scholarship, named after the famous actress, is a $500 acting scholarship given by the KCACTF to support student actors across the country. Sixteen regional and two national scholarships are awarded annually to nominees through participation in KCACTF regional and national festivals. Winners of each region go to Washington, D.C., to compete in the national competition.
To pick nominees, colleges pay for a KCACTF representative to come watch a performance. The university nominates one student, and the KCACTF representative nominate one or two additional students based off the performance.
Patterson was nominated for his performance as Vladimir in ETSU’s production of “Waiting for Godot” last semester. ETSU theater students Ryan Leonard and Ethan Harbin were also nominated, but they did not attend the auditions.
All Irene Ryan nominees must bring a partner, because the judges want to see the nominee react and respond to another person on stage. Partners are also eligible to receive awards. For nominees who make it to finals at the national competition, their partner also receives the scholarship.
Patterson said he chose Felty as his partner because they were already close friends. He said he could bounce off Felty if something went wrong in the scene. This ability to pick up and play off each other helped ease Patterson’s nerves at the audition because he trusted Felty, and he knew they “had it in the bag.”
For the audition, Patterson had to perform a monologue, as well as two scenes with Felty. Patterson said they prepared for about a month and a half.
“Everything felt really good, and [we were] confident about everything we did, but we didn’t get passed on through to the final round,” Patterson said. “But we had a lot of people come up. [They] told us that we did a wonderful job, they liked it and when they found out that we didn’t make it through, they were surprised. So, that kind of felt good.”
This was Patterson’s second time being nominated for the scholarship. He received his first nomination while attending Pellissippi State Community College, but he did not make it past the first round. Using his first experience as motivation, Patterson said he felt more prepared this time.
“My second time I was like, ‘I just want to feel good about my audition,’” Patterson said. “Because it’s all subjective if you get passed on or not, and how they do the first round; and luckily we got through, and that was a cool experience.”
For Felty, however, the audition was his first experience with the KCACTF.
“It was a really interesting and even educational experience,” Felty said. “Getting to be around that many talented people all throwing their energy at this one thing was a lot of fun, and I couldn’t have asked for a better partner.”
After attending, he said he wants to go back in any way he can. He said the experience helped him understand how theater festivals work, which has helped him prepare for the South Eastern Theatre Conference he will be attending at the end of the month.
“The things that I learned there with the workshops and what not are going to help me in every path of the theater I would think,” Felty said.
Both Patterson and Felty said getting nominated for, and especially being a semi-finalist for the Irene Ryan Scholarship looks great on a resume. For Patterson, a major benefit was the experience of meeting theater students from other schools.
“It’s a scholarship opportunity by the end of it, but it’s also the collaboration that you work with other people,” Patterson said. “It’s not like it’s a competition. Everybody’s friendly with one another when you go there. So, it’s all this theater experience with visiting people that you don’t know, working and looking at their pieces and being like, ‘Oh, that’s cool.’ And seeing that – it’s awesome.”
Felty said making semi-finals gives recognition to strength of ETSU’s Theatre and Dance program.
“I definitely think it shows that we’ve got what it takes,” Felty said. “It really is such a competitive process, and the fact that a school that’s nestled away somewhere in the mountains can send two people to this convention and compete against people that are [from] nationally-renowned programs in theater – that have so much more money than we do; have so many more shows that they can nominate folks for – really says a lot about us.”
